I believe that we are all born creative, entrepreneurial and a misfit, but we've been taught to 'fit-in'. On the podcast I try to shake up this thinking. That’s why it’s called The Design Your Thinking Podcast. Come join me and let's build something that we are proud of.

Best Of: How a Bass Guitarist is Helping Tech Startups Make Products Fast?

After being a musician and bass guitarist for 10 years, Tristan Kromer changed career to work with tech startups, helping them build products fast. Although this conversation was originally broadcasted in episode 34 of the show, with careers and job descriptions changing fast, it’s worthy of a listen today.

Who is Tristan Kromer?

Tristan Kromer works with innovation teams and leaders to create amazing products and build startup ecosystems. He has worked with companies from early stage startups with zero revenue to enterprise companies with >$1B USD revenue. (Swisscom, Pitney Bowes, Fujitsu, LinkedIn).

Tristan has worked with over 15 technology accelerator programs and ecosystem programs such as Innovation Norway, Vinnova (Sweden), Enterprise Ireland, NEST’up (Belgium), StartSmart (Estonia) and the Innovation Partnership Program (Vietnam-Finland) With his remaining hours, Tristan volunteers his time with Lean Startup Circle and blogs at GrasshopperHerder.com.

Why Should You Listen to Tristan?

Tristan, like I said, shifted careers from being a musician and a bass guitarist touring with a band, to now helping technology startups build products fast. At the outset, that may simply sound ridiculous. Why would one do that?

The harder part though, is that it’s sometimes relatively easy to get a chance, but very hard to survive and thrive in a completely new job. Tristan breaks down the 3 key skills he picked from his career as a musician and tells us how it is helpful for creators at large.

What Does He Talk about in this Interview?

Why is Tristan successful in his current role as a product consultant?

What he learnt from music that he instantly started to use in his new avatar as a product consultant?

How Tristan manages to stay productive?

Tristan’s secrets in managing the balance between being productive and being creative

What Tristan believes are the top 3 things a creator (someone who makes stuff that’s valuable to a a set of people) should be good at

Tristan’s view of how the notion of a “product” would change in the next 5 years

How Can You Listen?

Tristan Kromer’s interview is available in audio and video.

How to Get In Touch with Tristan Kromer?

Download ebook

I want to let you know that my ebook 13 Skills and Mindsets for Creators and Makers is now available for download. During Season 1 of the show, I interviewed over a 100 creators with background in design, filmmaking, arts, creative entrepreneurship and more. The goal was to understand what it takes to be successful and stand-out as a creator and maker. The outcome of that series of interviews are 13 skills, traits and mindsets that I’ve now documented in this ebook.

If you are a creator or maker, no matter what background you are from – tech, non-tech, visual arts, filmmaking, or just any other background, you will find this valuable. Why?

the list is made up of elements from across tech, business, filmmaking, media, visual and performing arts.